The article examines medical tourism as an important direction for the development of public healthcare. Particular attention is paid to balneology and the need to foster a health-preserving culture among the population. The research object is the medical tourism system as a complex of organizational, legal, economic, and social mechanisms that ensure the provision of medical and health-improving services to tourists using the natural healing factors of the region. The research subject is the preventive potential of medical tourism and the role of popularizing the health-improving potential of resort regions in the development of preventive medicine. The research aim is to conduct a systematic scientific analysis of the preventive potential of medical tourism and to develop theoretical and methodological approaches to its implementation in the modern healthcare system, using the example of the health-improving territories of the Caucasian Mineral Waters region. The research problem is that the high preventive potential of medical tourism in the Russian Federation contrasts with its limited implementation due to information deficit, regulatory and legal vacuum, and insufficient accessibility of preventive services for the population, which requires a systematic justification of mechanisms for integrating the popularization of the health-improving potential of resort regions into state healthcare policy. Materials and methods include a bibliographic analysis was performed using the PubMed search engine based on key queries, with no limitation on search depth. Additionally, data from Web of Science and Scopus systems, as well as the results of major bibliometric reviews over the past five years, were used. An analysis of federal statistical observation forms (Form No. 14, Form No. 1-KSR) was conducted. As a result, a scientometric analysis of medical tourism in the context of preventive medicine was carried out. The significance of natural healing resources in sanatorium-resort treatment programs for the prevention of chronic diseases was analyzed. It is concluded that the scientometric analysis identified the priorities of foreign research on medical tourism, but the deficit of randomized controlled trials, terminological inconsistency, weak representation of Russian publications, and low level of awareness among tourists about resort regions require strengthening of methodology, scientific collaboration, and education.